Hello everyone. I'm happy to have found this outstanding community and I hope I'm not too forward in hoping I'll grow to become a part of it.

I'm Richard Harris, 21, from Warwickshire, England and I'm aiming to get myself trim and strong in the coming months and years. I've only very recently (i.e. the last few days) become aquainted with the, to me esoteric, knowledge of nutrition being so very important.

With that in mind I aimed to educate myself to the facts and work the numbers to formulate a rough plan.

To start with I just hope to lose the love handles and little belly I have, as well as some fat over my pectorals, then work on getting stronger. So, 1 lb of fat off each week is the starting goal. I've never set foot in a gym in my life until yesterday, and I'm joining that as of tomorrow.

So, here's the initial number crunching:
Body Information
Height: 5' 10" / 177.8cm
Weight: 161 lbs / 73kg

BMR =
66 + (13.7x73) + (5x178) - (6.8x21) = 1806
1806 x 1.375 = 2483.25

Calories per day to maintain current weight: 2483.25

1 lb of fat = 3500 calories / 7 = 500. 2483.25 - 500 =
1983.25.

Daily Amounts (Protein, Carbs and Fat)
Protein: (4cal/g)
161 lbs = 161g protein.
161 x 4 = 644 calories.
644/1983.25x100 = 32.47% protein.

Fat: (9cal/g)
396.65/9 = 44.1g fat.
0.20x1983.25 = 396.65 calories.
20% fat.

Carbohydrates: (4cal/g)
942.63/4 = 235.7g carbs.
0.4735x1983.25 = 942.63 calories.
100 - 20(fat) - 32.47(protein) = 47.35% carbs.

Ratio: (P/C/F) rounded numbers

32.47 : 47.35 : 20

A front and profile shot (done with a camera phone, will get some superior ones sorted soon)
http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/9085/front6rd.jpghttp://img403.imageshack.us/img403/8461/profile7aa.jpg

With that done, here's my first day. To start with I decided to log everything I'd eat normally and see what it comes to. I don't eat much junk, so the results should be hopeful! All criticism (constructive please!) I welcome with open arms and a wide smile.

23/01/07:

TIME MEAL PROTEIN(g) CARBS(g) FAT(g) CALS
10am Corn Flakes (1 ser) 6 32 2.5 171
11am Cup a Soup 11 14.3 2.4 83
2pm 3xEggs 21.9 0 18.9 258
3.30pm Tom. Soup (400g) 3.6 26.6 11.8 226
Tuna (100g) 27 0 0.5 113
Brown Bread (2) 9.6 32 1.8 182
Flora Spread 0 0 5.9 53


This is as far as I've gotten today. I'll eat another meal before I go to sleep, a large one. Usually chicken (250g) in sauce with rice which would be...

Chicken 41 2 6 240
Karai Sauce 16 68.5 29 (ouch!) 610
Rice 7.3 7.6 1.25 344

TOTALS: 133.5 183 80.05 2280
TARGETS: 161 235.7 44.1 1983.25

Oh dear! Well, it seems today I'm going to overshoot both fat and calorie targets, and hit low on both protein and carbs. Quite an eye opener for me. I had realised by around lunch time that I should aim to space out my afternoon/evening meals more and I would overhit on fat. I didn't quite expect such low marks on protein and carbs though.
It's all a learning curve though, and I'll have it just that much closer tomorrow!

I've learned alot today, and if it wasn't through the inspirational stories and posts on this site, I doubt I would have started this voyage. So thankyou, and until I return, goodbye!

Oh dear, does anyone know how to post tables, or tabled information? It's gone all skeewiff.

Oh dear, does anyone know how to post tables, or tabled information? It's gone all skeewiff.

Sign up at fitday.com to track your food intake, it'll make your life so much easier. Also, I use the 'code' feature on these forums to keep the formatting legible.

hth,
Nate

Fitday, what a great site. Excellent find.
It did bring up some questions though,

a) Do you use the preset foods already loaded at FitDay?
or
b) Do you input your foods manually (with the basic details)?

I ask as I started with A) only to find that the numbers were all different to what are stated on the packaging of the food I've been using, even if the brand is the same on FitDay.
For now, I've been sticking to B) and just inputting Protein, Fat, Carbs and Cals. I hope that'll be enough for now.

As an update for yesterday's plan:
After seeing what a mess an Indian dinner would do last night, I tweaked my plans slightly and had;

M5: 3xFish Fingers, 100gxBeans, 200xMash

M6: Wholemeal Pitta Slice, 500gxFat Free Yogurt

That significantly changed the end scores, with protein still being under with carbs and fat slightly overshooting. Calories were over only by a dozen or so though.

However... my beautiful wench visited for a few hours, and I ended up having a couple of glasses of Astii, I have no idea how to calculate that, all I know is that I consumed 35cl @ 7.5%.

Does anyone know how to calculate alcohol?

As for this morning, Instead of Corn Flakes and Cup a Soup for Meal 1, I've opted for....

M1: 2xCrumpets, 200gxRed Grapefruit

Which is 10 more calories, but 4.3g less fat. Protein is down by 0.5g and Carbs are up by 10g. A much better option. Something I'd have had no idea about until today!

Hi Rich,

Thanks for commenting in my journal, but enough of that, this is YOUR journey.

(These are in the order of the things you said, I HOPE :))

1. Well done in realising that you want to change. That is THE most important step.

2. Well done for working out all BMR mumbo-jumbo. Most people forget to apply the activity factor, and then wonder why their BMR is so low :lol:

3. Your caloric intake looks fine. I would just round it up to 2000 to begin with.

4. That macronutrient ratio is fine to begin with, but over time, I would lower the carbs, and increase the protein slightly, but this is up to you :)

5. Get a better camera for pictures. :lol: ;)

6. When logging how much you eat, some people find it easy to log everything, and make it really scientific and mathematical. I, on the other hand, started eating what I thought was about right, and am judging it without all the maths. Up to you again :)

7. It is more helpful if you set your meal plan out better, but I'll let you off, I'm just picky.

E.g.

Meal 1 - 3 Burgers, 2 Pizzas, 5 Dougnuts
Meal 2 - etc

(I hope you never make those food choices BTW :lol:)

8. You are still coming to terms with adding up food. Don't worry about it. Give yourself a week to start working it all out.

9. Here is a list of foods that I think you should include in your diet: (there are loads more, these are my favourites)

Proteins: Chicken, Turkey, Tuna, Eggs, Egg whites, Lean Beef
Complex Carbs: Potatoes, Rice, Pasta, OATS! :lol:
Fibrous Carbs: Green veggies
Fats: Almonds, Peanuts, Olive Oil, Egg Yolk

Read the sticky threads in the Introduction forum for some more ideas :tucool:

10. Only use Fitday.com to track your OWN PERSONAL FOODS. Don't use their manual ones. Yes, this means reading food labels. This is part of the reason why I do not track what I eat anymore ;)

11. Use the code feature, see in my signature for an example.

It is nice to see another guy from the UK on here. If you want any help, just ask me, or anyone else. It is a great community on here.

Also, spend time reading posts and threads. There is so much to take in :) ;)

Top post Foley, just what I was looking for. :tu:

That's really helped tie up a few loose ends in my mind and added a bit of reassurance to just get on with it!

Oats! Yes, oats are good, I've only those Scott's Porage Oats at the moment, they work out at (per 100g):

11g Protein, 60g Carbs, 8g Fat, 356 Calories.

I'm not sure if they're the right kind of oats to be incorporating into my plan, or if there're some "cleaner" versions out there in the local Tesco. I'll have a wander around tonight and see what's to be had. :)

I'll start rounding up my calories to 2000 as of tomorrow (so obvious as it's such a small amount in hindsight, but with knowing nothing sticking to the book was my only guide)

On Monday (29th) I'll alter my P/C/F ratio to 40:40:20 and start to work around that.

I've found it amazing how easy it is to pick up once the initial groundworks (i.e. the BMR calculations etc) are finalised. After that it's just a case of reading packaging, which really takes no time and is in-fact very interesting. I find myself actually knowing the amounts for some foods off the top of my head.

Then I'll write up a meal plan by or at the weekend in time for Monday, I don't want to rush and overwhelm myself just yet. Small logical steps seem the way to go, but that's definitely the next one.

Good ideas. Eat as healthily as you can this week, the work out a plan. Then post it up in here, and you'll get help no doubt :)

Also, have you looked in weightlifting yet? That IMO is second important behind fitness. I'm not trying to overload you with information, promise :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: ;)

BTW my real name is Dave :)

Dave it is. :)

I bought myself some work out equipment for Christmas and set it up recently. Become quite comfortable with it now, more so since administering large quanitites of WD40! (it was starting to squeek sometimes! What a racket.)

Here's a picture:
http://img167.imageshack.us/img167/625/machine4jl.jpg

In the background on the floor is a barbell, and there's also two dumbells with it, accompanied by around 50kg of YORK weights. You could find look them in in the Argos catalogue if you really wanted to, but I'm sure you get the idea. I've also got two press up handles as well, they've helped me improve the amount I can do quite rapidly over the last few weeks.

I'm still learning what weights to use and what exercises to do, but it's coming (albeit slowly). I'll work out a schedule, or at least a report, of what I do on it as well over the coming weeks and days and have it integrated into this Journal! :bb:

Good stuff :)

The barbell will come in handy, I'm sure :)

Fitday, what a great site. Excellent find.
It did bring up some questions though,

a) Do you use the preset foods already loaded at FitDay?
or
b) Do you input your foods manually (with the basic details)?

I ask as I started with A) only to find that the numbers were all different to what are stated on the packaging of the food I've been using, even if the brand is the same on FitDay.
For now, I've been sticking to B) and just inputting Protein, Fat, Carbs and Cals. I hope that'll be enough for now.


I input all the foods I eat. I find that I eat the same things over and over again. I try to stick to the same brands so I don't have multiple entries.

Also, I found this site:

http://www.dietfacts.com/

That has some integration with fitday and the numbers are fairly close. It also has a lot of restaurant-type foods listed as well, just in case you have to eat out. Not sure how many UK-based things will be in there, but I used it last night to get the stats on a few pints of Guinness.

That Olive Oil that you were on about:

1 tablespoon:
Protein - 0g
Carbs - 0g
Fat - 13.7g
Sat Fat - 2.3g

Hope this helps

Dave :)

On my first day of counting calories, this is what I consumed.
Bear in mind I've yet to work out an actual eating plan, this is what happens with good intentions but little planning:

http://img297.imageshack.us/img297/9145/2301073hs.th.jpg (http://img297.imageshack.us/my.php?image=2301073hs.jpg)

Day 2, the experimentation continues. I intended to keep the fat down, which I did all day, until eating whole eggs. I know now that egg whites would have been the perfect choice to keep the numbers happy. I do keep reminding myself that it's all a learning curve.

I am aware that I need to eat more vegetables really, as not many are eaten throughout the day. I can also see why a protein shake is extremely helpful as I find I keep hitting below my protein levels.
I may have to invest in one fairly soon, but before that option I'm going to integrate chicken heavily into my meals over the weekend and see what happens.

http://img294.imageshack.us/img294/9659/2401077fz.th.jpg (http://img294.imageshack.us/my.php?image=2401077fz.jpg)

I attended my first fencing lesson last night with my local club - Salle Ursa ('Salle' is a french word meaning 'room' also indicating a fencing club. 'Ursa' is latin for bear - relating to the association's strong links to Warwickshire. I'll put some more info on that to put it into context later in this post).

My head was swimming a little during all the exercises and stretches. It requires so much upper leg dexterity and stamina, DOMS mania right now, stairs are not a welcome sight. I can see why they call it violent ballet.

After being picked up from the sports hall by the girlfriend and taken back to hers I was starving. I just needed something to fuel me, the only thing available (that seemed alright) was milk and some shake mix. I had two cups of peppermint green tea also.

Warwickshire Council's Arms:
http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/thumb/d/d6/200px-Warwickarms.JPG
The bear insignia features heavily around where I live. The local radio station is called "The Bear" and it's emblazoned on all local official forms, documents and buildings.

As for today, I've not quite got the P/C/F ratio right yet, but I'm adding alot more vegetables (cucumbers, brocolli, spring onions, celery etc) I'm not sure what are the best of those to use yet, so I'll jiust throw in a bit of everything. I might buy some coleslaw tubs, anything to help really as I've found it shocking how little I eat vegetables!

Hey Rich,

Well done on the plans. Don't be too exact with your calories. I you are aiming for 2000, there is no harm in having 100 more or 100 less I think.

Chicken is AWESOME. This is because it is mostly protein, with zero carbs, and less than 1g of Fat. (Based on 120g)

Great idea :)

Just had a look at your plan. Between what meals will you be working out?

This can help with the meal tweaking... :)

Right, well I tend to do some stretches, press ups, pull ups and chin ups in the early afternoon. Then at around 5pm I tend to lift some weights or use the multi-gym.

Every wednesday night at 8-10pm I'll be fencing (alot of cardio and awkward leg work) and every Friday, Sunday and one other night in the week I'll head to the gym at the same time (to use the ellipticals and swimming pool, as well as some weights).

Should I be eating carbs after work outs? Or just mainly in the mornings?

You want your carvs centered mainly around your workouts.

Pre Weightlifting:
Slow absorbing Protein and Low Glycemic Carbohydrate
E.g. Cottage Cheese and Oats

Post Weightlifting:
Fast absorbing Protein and High Glycemic Carbohydrate
E.g. Whey Protein and Dextrose

Pre, low intensity, long period cardio:
Healthy Dats and slow absorbing Protein

Post, low intensity, long period cardio:
Healthy Fats and fast absorbing Protein

Treat your fencing and very intense forms of cardio as Weightliftin, and apply the above rules.

It is hard for me to write for you a sample plan as you are always doing different things at different times.

BUT to up your protein a bit, add some egg whites to Meal 1. Thats the only one that will stay constant I guess.

Also make sure that Meal 1 is the largest meal of your day :)

Hope this helps :)

Rich I told you I'd bring your journal out from the dead. Post some stuff man :D